Voluntary Closure Every June and Seasonal Falcon Closures MORE INFO >>>

Seasonal Raptor Closure revision June 18, 2015: In order to protect Peregrine falcon nesting activity, the following SOUTHEAST FACE climbing routes and the SOUTHEAST EDGES of the Tower’s Summit, including the EAST SIDE OF THE MEADOWS and the STANDARD MEADOWS FINISH are CLOSED. The closure on the NE Face has been lifted.

Devils Tower National Monument temporarily closes climbing routes on the west face and the northwest shoulder of Devils Tower to protect nesting falcons every year. Such temporary closures are an annual occurrence at Devils Tower established under the 1995 Climbing Management Plan, with authority from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Climbers are asked to report any defensive falcon behavior to a park ranger or call 307-467-5283. Please check at the climbing office for updated closure info and a list of all climbing routes which may be closed.

Voluntary Closure Every June: Climbers are asked to respect the voluntary closure for the month of June to respect Devil's Tower's importance as a cultural resource.

To learn more about Devils Tower National Monument, contact 307-467-5283, visit us online at www.nps.gov/deto

This information is a public crowdsourcing effort between the Access Fund,
and Mountain Project.You should confirm closures, restrictions, and/or related dates.

Description

This is the classic box stem on the far south end of the west face easily visable from the trail head at the parking lot. Expect tourist gawkers on this route. There is good reason for them to stare, this is one of the most unique and classic climbs in the country.

Pitch 1: Climb the ramp and short section of 5.8 to get to a big ledge on top of a broken column at the base of the box.

Pitch 2: This is the pitch you've heard about. Climb up setting gear in the crack on the left when ever you feel like it. There are some good jams and fingerlocks on your way, but you must stem your legs and in some places pure stemming is the only option. Move fast and fight the burn. Easier for taller people, but the box narrows as you get higher. Belay at the top of the lefthand column. They say no move is harder than 5.9, but endurace and pain threshold are the keys here!

P3: Climb the near-vertical hand crack directly above the belay 40 ft to large ledge with two bolts. (5.8 fun)

P4: Jam the left crack on the ledge (you do not step off the ledge to reach this crack) for about 15 ft until you can clip a pin on the left wall. The pin looked marginal so I placed a bomber large stopper. Traverse straight right on good feet to the right crack. Now place some small wires and balance up to the roof, place a small cam and crank over on finger locks (10a crux). Climb over one more small roof and a short #.75 C4 crack (5.9) to a stance with two bolts. ~90ft

P5: Climb the rotten chimney directly above (5.4) until you reach a large ledge directly below the summit. Be extremely careful not to knock any of the loose blocks in the chimney down as they will funnel directly into the stacked up climbers waiting to climb the first two pitches! From here you can climb the easier looking chimney to the left(5.4?), or the hard-to-protect crack/face directly in front of you (5.7) to two bolts. Once again be very careful what you pull on. ~150 ft

The loose rock on the last pitch is avoidable, just something to be aware of.

The standard rap descent is on the far side of the tower. It would be possible to rap the route with 2 60m ropes but you would risk dropping your rope or rocks on someone climbing below.

Protection

stoppers and small to medium cams. The less gear you set the less burned you will get!

While unrelenting for sure, this route is very easy to protect. Continual movement is the key, and good crack holds will help along the way. I climbed this route with someone under 5'5", he climbed the crack the whole way, and only used the stem for rests! No 5.10 climber should shy away. One of a kind.

I got the same pump in my calves I usually get in my forearms after leading this pitch. I think I placed about twenty pieces of gear, because the bottlenecks in the left crack were too good to pass up, and because, at any minute, I could have succumed to the pain.

Summited the tower on the route. Did the 10a variation of P4 over the right side of the roof (it was fun and felt hard for the grade). On P4, one can skip the first anchor and go about 150ft total to the next anchor. It's then another 70/80 ft to a set of anchor (look left) at the summit.

I'm 5'6 and can stem anywhere on P2, but moving off of pure stem would be quite difficult for the first 30 ft).

The second pitch is fantastic and is one of the most memorable I have climbed. El Mat is a must do for any 5.11 climber. It takes good pro, so dont be scared to take a shot at this classic.

I cannot agree that no move is harder than 5.9. I have climbed plenty of cracks at plenty of places and some of the crack moves on the bottom half of the climb are in the 10b or 10c range although there are easier moves in between them. I cannot judge the difficulty of the upper half of the climb because I am not used to chimney stemming, but I can say that is it going to feel plenty harder than 5.9 for those of you who are not used to it.

Gear Beta for second pitch:

The climb does like medium to small pro. I took triples from 0.5 Camalot to #1 Camalot, and doubles from 0.3 inches to 0.4 inches (blue and green aliens) and I placed most of that (I place every 10 to 12 feet) and I did not have to worry too much about having to ration certain sizes on the way up. I took two sets of nuts and I placed five or so of them. Definitely do not need any Stoppers smaller than a 5. The last 30 feet or so of the second pitch do favor smaller gear in the 0.5 inch to 0.3 inch sizes, so save some tiny cams for that section.

I took two #2 Camalots and I was only able to place one of them. I do not think you could place two on the route, so do not take 2 of those. I read somewhere that it would save time to rack nuts on individual biners. I tried this strategy and I found that it burned extra time because I was not used to it and I had to fumble around to find which nut was on which biner. That is probably a better strategy for redpointing the route. If you are looking to onsite the route, I think that sticking with your normal process is the better strategy.

Rappel Beta:

We rapped from the top of the second pitch with two 60M ropes. This dumped us off on a 4th class ramp, which I did not really like. If you are not comfortable downclimbing a little 4th class, I would rap to the anchors at the top of pitch 1 and then rap to the ground.

Go as far as you can without resting! When you get to the top, oh man are you pumped! It is well worth it, great view unbelievable climb. I'm 5'2" and the stem was a stretch in some places it was nearly impossible, but the section where steaming is necessary I was able to do.

excellent route. don't worry too much about your height as there is a lot to work with most of the time. even being pretty tall, i probably only did the full stem thing on maybe half of it. takes great gear the entire way. agreed with others who say no move harder than 5.9, but pretty sustained. really fun.

The Orenczak/Lynn guide only notes a single 60' chimney pitch, but there is a second one (also short) to reach the summit. Both are marked by fixed anchors. The final anchors are at the top of the crack system climber's right of the P5 belay.

I only TR'd this, but I think the key is to try using the crack as much as possible and only stem out when you really have to. The stem can wear you down quickly. Also, if you climb this in the morning, look back down to the parking lot and be amazed by the flash bulbs of the paparazzi tourists as they add pictures of you to their Devils Tower photo albums.